You have come to expect a Friday blog post written by our museum director, Denise Hellwege, called Museum Musings. Today, she is not able to make her normal Friday contribution to our blog because her father-in-law has died, and she is attending to family business. So, I am filling in for her today. In the process of finding a story for today, I ran across a birthday boy by the name of Henry Mueller. Upon further looking, I discovered that I had previously written the post that is attached below. Since Mueller Millers sounded like Museum Musings, I decided to share that old post again today. When I reread that old story, I realized that it really focused on some buildings associated with the Henry Mueller story. It was missing the standard documents that I usually include in blog posts nowadays. So, I decided to magnify the Mueller Millers story today by including some of those missing documents.
Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Mueller was born on November 14, 1880, the son of Christian and Magdalena (Buenger) Mueller. He was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. His baptism record from that congregation’s books is pictured here.
We do not see Henry in a census entry until 1900. In that entry, Henry was called 18 years old, but I think he was at least 19 at the time. He and his father were called millers. They operated the Altenburg Roller Mills which was located on the east end of the town of Altenburg.
The map of Altenburg produced in 1915 shows the location of the Mueller residence and the mill. There are several parcels of land nearby owned by Anton Mueller, but he was from a different Mueller clan.
Henry would get married in the next decade, so let’s take a quick look at the early life of the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Wilhelmine Kuennel, who was born on December 10, 1880. She was perhaps the adopted daughter of John and Caroline (Weiland) Kuennel. As is pointed out in the attached post, Wilhelmine’s mother had the surname, Muffler. Wilhelmine did not get baptized until 1894, the same day that she was confirmed. Her baptism record and confirmation records are found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.
Like was the case with Henry Mueller, Wilhelmine is not found in a census until 1900. She was also called 18 years old, but I think she was at least 19. Her father was a retired merchant in Altenburg.
There is a photo in the previous post showing the Kuennel’s standing in front of their home in Altenburg, and it includes Wilhelmine on the far left. The above census would be the only one in which we find Wilhelmine prior to her marriage.
Henry Mueller married Wilhelmine Mueller on April 10, 1904 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I displayed this couple’s marriage license before, as well as their wedding photo, but not the church marriage record. That record is pictured below.
In the 1910 census, we find the Mueller’s with 3 children.
The mill burned down in 1919, but another one was rebuilt. In the 1920 census, we find the Christian Mueller and Henry Mueller households right next to one another. Henry was called the manager of a flour mill. There were 6 children in their household.
Shortly after this time, the Mueller’s moved to New Albany, Indiana. That is where we find this family in the 1930 census. Henry was still working at a flour mill. There is a very interesting fact found in this entry. Reinhold Mueller, the 25 year-old son, along with his wife, Dorothy, were called a missionaries in China. I can understand them having such occupations, but I have to wonder why they were included in this United States census entry when they were supposedly in China.
In the 1940 census, the Mueller’s had just 2 unmarried children living with them, but once again, we see Reinhold and Dorothy, along with a child born in China. Reinhold was still called a missionary in China. Henry no longer had an occupation at the age of 60.
The last census we can view is the one taken in 1950. Just one single son was living with Henry and Wilhelmine.
Henry Mueller died in 1964 at the age of 81. We can view his Indiana death certificate here.
Wilhelmine Mueller died in 1970. On her Indiana death certificate below, it says her mother’s maiden name was Annie Muffler.
Henry and Wilhelmine Mueller are buried together in the Plainview Cemetery in New Albany.
I live very close to the house that was once occupied by the Christian Mueller family, and right behind that house was where the mill was located. A photo of that house can be seen in the attached blog post. That house is now occupied by Bob “Ben” Kasten and his wife. When I first told Ben that Herb Schmidt was my uncle, he got a grin on his face and said Herb was his uncle too. That’s because, Herb’s wife, Melba, was a Kasten.
I can also say that the Mueller house is part of the story that I tell in my Wittenberg books. Christian Mueller’s wife, Magdalena, was a midwife who often helped deliver babies in Wittenberg back around the turn of the 20th century.